Country singer Granger Smith and his wife Amber Bartlett are still grieving the loss of their 3-year-old son, River.
As Dearly previously reported, River passed away on June 6 following “a drowning accident” at their Texas home. Granger and Amber revealed the news with the public on their respective Instagram accounts:
the statement, both Granger and Amber took time away from social media to spend time with their family to mourn River’s death.
Then, 13 days later, the couple took to YouTube to share how they are feeling. Granger and Amber began by first thanking their fans for all of the messages and letters they have been receiving.
The parents then explained why they decided to film the video:
“There’s a lot of people who watched Riv on ‘The Smiths’ [YouTube channel] … There’s a lot of people that he affected, so it’s important to not stay dark forever and to come back on social media.”
Granger later talked about River’s memorial service and how hard it was for him and Amber to stand up in front of their family and friends, but knew it was important for them to let their loved ones know how they were doing.
The couple added that they have also been in touch with other parents, including celebrity parents, who have lost a child to accidental drowning as well. They said the feeling of not being alone has been helpful for them:
“It’s only been two weeks, but it has been a journey and we’re still learning every day. As we said in the service, first we want to thank the first responders. … I definitely have a new understanding of how that works and then, same goes for the hospital.”
Granger continued:
“We are going to search for every bit of good that we can find in this situation. The worst situation we’ve ever been through hopefully ever. … That’s my commitment to River’s legacy.”
The parents then remembered the day River passed away.
As Granger and Amber sat under a tree in their yard, Granger said “it was actually a night like this”:
“I was outside, playing with London, we were doing gymnastics in the yard. And the boys were playing water gun fight. And I remember thinking, I was looking at London as she was doing gymnastics, and I thoughtSoak up this moment.’ I just had this thoughtSoak up this moment because it’s not going to last forever.’ Somewhere between 30 seconds and three minutes, we don’t know, Amber and I are inside our pool gate doing CPR on our son.
And I think the platform that we immediately stand for is love those close to you, soak up those moments, live for today, live in the present because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. What happened to us that night defied all possibilities and we believe, in our belief, that God gave us River for three years and that was his mission. I don’t believe that God takes anyone too soon.”
But the most important thing Granger and Amber want people to take away from this video, in particular, is that they are committed “to each other, our family, our kids, our faith.”
Overcome with emotion, Granger asked his fans not to feel sorry for them:
“Because we feel very blessed. We had an incredible little boy for three years. We feel really good about that. And we feel really good about our other kids and their state of mind right now.”
The dad concluded by saying, “When you think of Riv, I want you to smile.”
Amber also took to Instagram to share a little bit more about how she’s been feeling these last 14 days on Instagram.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2005 to 2014, there were roughly ten unintentional drowning incidents per day:
About one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger. For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.